Iraola leans on Liverpool academy amid injury crisis

Andoni Iraola is preparing to hand 19-year-old Trey Nyoni his first Premier League start as a severe injury list and fixture congestion force Liverpool to rely heavily on their academy during a grueling six-game stretch in 18 days.

Nyoni, forward Lewis Koumas and winger Rio Ngumoha all started Wednesday’s 6-3 Champions League victory over LASK. The trio is expected to feature again when Liverpool travels to Brentford on Saturday, filling gaps left by absent senior players including Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai. Midfielder Ryan Gravenberch is also unavailable after receiving a red card during the recent defeat to Manchester City.

The reliance on teenagers exposes the structural imbalance of a squad assembled under former sporting director Richard Hughes before his departure. Rather than building depth across multiple positions—a strategy employed by title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City—Liverpool concentrated its summer spending on three marquee signings exceeding £100 million each: Bradley Barcola for £123 million, Florian Wirtz and Isak.

That top-heavy approach left the roster without adequate cover in central areas. The club failed to sign a replacement midfielder after selling Curtis Jones to Inter for £30 million, a gap Iraola acknowledged existed even before taking over from Arne Slot. The resulting squad architecture pairs elite international starters directly with academy prospects, leaving almost no experienced middle tier to absorb injuries or rotation demands.

Slot rarely utilized that youth pipeline during his final season at Anfield. Nyoni made only two starts under the Dutch manager last year and was entirely phased out after a rotated lineup crashed out of the Carabao Cup against Crystal Palace. Iraola has taken the opposite approach, integrating younger players into competitive matches rather than shielding them until rosters stabilize.

“Trey is a player that I think, being very young with not a lot of minutes in the first team, he’s very mature,” Iraola said. “He understands the situations very well, he understands the game very well. Tactically, I think he’s really smart.”

Nyoni is projected to partner Alexis Mac Allister in central midfield against Brentford. His versatility allows him to operate as either a defensive No. 6 or an advanced No. 8, providing tactical flexibility that Liverpool desperately needs while navigating a schedule featuring matches every 72 hours.

The physical toll of such density historically increases soft-tissue injuries across Premier League squads. Even when Isak, Gakpo, Szoboszlai and Hugo Ekitike return to fitness, further absences are statistically probable given the compressed calendar. That reality means the 21-year-old Koumas, 16-year-old Ngumoha and Nyoni will likely be required repeatedly throughout the domestic campaign, not just as emergency stopgaps.

Liverpool currently sits outside the automatic qualification spots in the newly expanded 36-team Champions League league phase, making points in both European and domestic fixtures critical ahead of the winter window.